Windows Vista forum: IE8 Is it any good

Is IE8 any good? Back when I first got my new computer 6 months ago, I tried it and had a lot of problems, not sure but think it was because I installed IE8. When I removed it and went back to IE7 I had a lot less problems.

Or ask a little more. IE8 changed how pages are rendered and more. The issues I saw were not just IE8 but websites that may need tweaks to work with IE8. Let's say that IE8 is not going to change. And web sites will play catchup.

I don't use IE much so I never saw the issue. I'll let MSFT update their browser but use other browsers because it's my choice.Bob

Depends on what your idea of any good is. It's better than IE6 and IE7 in terms of improved security and much better handling of INTERNATIONAL STANDARD HTML. You have no idea the frustration it is to try and write a webpage that works in IE6 and any other browser, but if you've ever seen someone who has odd bald patches on their head... They either have mange, or are a web developer who has to support IE6.

But since IE3, it still has the same fundamentally flawed ActiveX system, which is where all the malware comes from. So while security is quite a bit improved from IE6, where for 3-4 years there was at least one new remote exploit found pretty much every week, MS still has yet to properly sandbox ActiveX and so I can't say as I recommend anyone use it if they have a choice in the matter.

Doesn't really matter what you pick to replace it, it's going to be far more secure, and having a variety of browsers in widespread use is good for the market. It promotes healthy competition. You could use Firefox (or its siblings Flock and Seamonkey), Chrome, Safari, or Opera. You have at least 4 major alternatives, and they're all free. They also, and more importantly, have a much faster turnaround time on fixing issues when found. Microsoft rarely gets a patch out within a week, usually they push out one set of patches a month (patch Tuesdays, which was yesterday BTW), and it sometimes can take months or even years if Microsoft decides they want to bother fixing it at all. Mozilla browsers (Firefox, Seamonkey, and Flock) usually have a turnaround time of 2-3 days from the time a flaw is found to when there's a fix ready. The other browsers are usually under a week for fixes, though sometimes Apple is a bit slow on the uptake like Microsoft, and will for reasons known only to them, just decide to sit on a bug for weeks, months, years even. So assuming a flaw is found that affects all browsers equally well, you're likely to be exposed for a far shorter period of time with any browser that isn't IE.

Hey, this is Feran with the IE Outreach Team. Six months ago you likely were using either the beta or RC version. The final was released in the middle of March so you may want to try it out. From a security standpoint, IE8 is a much safer browser than previous versions. In fact a new NSS Labs study shows that Internet Explorer 8 is the best browser for protecting consumers against malware and phishing attacks. Read more here: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/08/13/real-world-protection-with-ie8-s-smartscreen-filter.aspx

Thanks for the info. I know just enough about computers to totally FUBAR them with a push of a key. Back with my 286 I had no problems, and did pretty well, since then it has all been down hill LOL....

Seems a touch fishy to me. A cursory glance over that study makes it look kind of suspect. I actually went through the full report, which has a number of oddities about it.

Why they chose to go with Firefox 3.0.11 when Firefox 3.5 was released about a month prior to the publication of that report is a little suspect to me. They also run their tests on the Windows 7 RC, which seems VERY strange. They chose to go with Opera 10 beta instead of the latest stable release.

But they also say that IE8 and Firefox are basically in a dead heat given the margin of error of around 3.8%, so claiming that IE8 is the "safest" browser out there seems premature at best.

They say their data was collected starting on July 7th, and Firefox 3.5 was released on June 13th, so almost a full month before they even started collecting data.

And I see a lot of mention about various methods of testing anti-phishing methods, but that doesn't really cover malware, which is pretty much exclusively an IE problem. There are a few proof of concept type malware attacks using Java and Flash that will target browsers other than IE, and a few other proof of concept Firefox extensions that are effectively malware (at least one of which is pushed out by MS in the .NET Framework)... Let's face it, 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999% of all malware out there comes in the form of an ActiveX control.

But more than that, you can't make the jump from anti-phishing to malware prevention. The two are completely different attack vectors.

All in all, there are some questionable methods employed with that study, and the conclusions you draw from it simply aren't supported by what's there. If you want to push Microsoft products, that is your choice, but if you want to maintain any level of credibility you're going to need to start actually reading the stuff you quote. You can't just assume no one is going to look at the actual report, and find out that your cliff's notes version glosses over some pretty important things.

I upgraded to this version and on one of my computers it shows that it is running with no "add-ons". Even when I follow the instructions to enable add-ons, nothing changes. Each time I open it, the yellow bar comes up and says no active x is being utilized. How do I reinstall? It is obviously corrupted in some way.

This is the wrong place for that sort of question. It's generally considered rude to hijack someone else's thread with your own questions.

Start a new topic, or even try doing a Google search for the answer to the problem. Even better, is just dumping IE all together. You've already managed, by dumb luck, to put it into it's safest possible mode. Now's a GREAT time to dump it in favor of pretty much ANYTHING else: Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome, Seamonkey... Take your pick.

Namely Opera, Firefox, Chrome. IE8 is slow at opening tabs and rendering pages with javascript compared to its competitors, memory usage is not optimal too. It is losing out in market share. It's time to dump IE.

I take this from another angle.....not if it is good or not by the method of deployment. It seems, at least with Browser MS can not make a d<nloadable piece of SW that will overwrite or replace the previous existing SW. I ran into this problem with IE 7 and now IE 8.

When IE 7 first came out, back in Oct 2006...I downlaoded it but it would crash so I reverted (uninsatlled) to IE 6. By the end of 2007 MS cured that problem with IE 7.

In March 2009 with the final release of IE 8 I downloaded it within the first few weeks after release. IE 8 never installed correctly. It would never load or it would load but not operate....just freeze. After numerous installs and uninstalls...I am back to IE 7.

If you have Windows 7 RC......IE 8 works fine..it is faster than IE7. Occasionally you will get a page that does not render correctly, text renders on top of one and other.....etc. So wait until you have Windows 7...

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